Chapter 33 - _______ Wants to Join Your Party

The attendant brought the two of them to a large door. "This is where we keep some of our female demihuman slaves. There are some more that are kept in the room across the hall if you can't find one that you're satisfied with." There was a large guard--but still smaller than Jasmine--standing next to the door and he was the one who opened it for them. "I'll wait over here. Feel free to look at the slaves and when you've made a decision then you can come and get me." Gren wasn't sure but she seemed afraid of something; she wasn't afraid of Jasmine so maybe it was just demihuman slaves she feared?

When Gren thought of a slave trader he imagined a bunch of dirty people chained up wearing dirty rags. He was completely wrong. They were all clean and spotless. Even their clothes were clean; so clean that you couldn't even see them! The only thing on their bodies were grey iron collars on their necks. This was probably why they kept it so warm in here. "Heh heh. Is my little hubby distracted by the beautiful women?" Jasmine decided to get his attention by teasing him.

"No, I was just surprised that everyone is clean." Gren decided to tell her the truth before teasing her back. "Although now that you mention it..."

Jasmine giggled and then looked around. "Hmmm. There's a half orc woman. She should be strong but not strong enough on her own. For now we'll put her on the maybe list. There are too many to look through. How about you look through this room while I go see if I can find some strong demihumans in the other room?"

The half orc seemed to have given up hope before they even got there. Gren decided to talk to her after Jasmine went off on her own. "Hey. Are you okay?" The half orc flinched but didn't say anything. "I won't hurt you. Do you want to be free?"

The woman looked up at Gren, a tiny flame of hope present in her eyes. She nodded. "What's your name?"

"My name is Tahloh." The half orc had a cute voice which was a surprise.

"Tahloh. It's not a bad name. How much did they tell people that you were worth when they had asked before?" None of the cages had a price. Gren wanted to know if the attendant would try to rip him off before buying anybody. It was his principle to not fund scammers.

"It started off at five gold but nobody bought me. They told the last person that I was worth three gold coins and five silvers." Gren nodded and then turned around, calling for the attendant. She slowly made her way while looking left and right; her hands held by her chest.

"Did you need me for something?" She still seemed afraid but she wasn't looking around anymore. It seemed like she wasn't afraid of demihumans in general. Gren couldn't figure it out so he decided to ignore it.

"How much for this woman?" The attendant opened up a book that she had in a pouch tied to her belt and crouched, looking at the cage. At the bottom of the cage was a number.

"105739, female, orc. Currently listed as three gold and two silvers. Do you want to buy her?" Gren nodded which made the attendant start smiling again.

"I want to buy her but we're still looking for more strong women. Can I pay you now and have you let her out?" The smile on the attendant's face froze for a bit.

She tried her best to keep smiling but it looked awkward. "Certainly. However, clothes are not provided in this room so she will have to wait." She held out her hand and Gren gave her the money. He reached into his sleeve as usual to hide the transfer from his pocket dimension.

Tahloh was soon freed and hugged Gren while crying. She wasn't an attractive woman so Gren didn't have any thoughts of having sex with her. She had a pig nose and a square jaw.

Still, it was hard not to react a little to a young naked woman hugging him. Her breasts weren't large but they were still easy to notice. Her pussy looked like it'd be comfortable to slip into since she was slightly chubby. His thoughts weren't helping him. Gren tried to think of the number for pi to distract himself but could only remember 3.14.

Tahloh released him and he leaned forward, hunching his back. The attendant had already returned to the area by the door before he knew it and she was writing something in her notebook. Gren continued to look in the cages with Tahloh on his tail. She seemed happy.

After a while he had lost his reason to hunch over. There really were a lot of women in here; it looked to be around 50 cages. The room could fit more but the cages were separated by at least four feet and there was a wide path for the customers. Most of the women looked like they lost their souls already but some of them were still trying to cover their privates as he walked by.

However, there was one woman completely different from the rest; she seemed to be a human and when Gren walked by she pressed herself against the cage. Her right hand was being used to explore her genitals as her left hand gripped the bars. Her eyes became glossed over and she bit her lower lip and moaned. She opened her mouth and whispered something but Gren couldn't hear it.

Gren unconsciously stepped closer to hear what she said and he was only inches away from her. At that moment a black tar-like substance emerged from her body, causing her to expand in size as she yelled out at the same time. Gren was scared shitless and fell on his ass.

The woman started laughing as Gren got up. "Every time! You humans are too easy to trick!" Her form changed and she became a black ball. It seemed like her entire body was made out of that tar. "Ahaha! The orc girl even peed herself! It has been a while since that happened!" Gren didn't notice but when he turned around there was a puddle under Tahloh and she was on the ground crying.

With all of the noise the attendant was alerted and started walking their way. "Oh, look who it is! Don't worry, little orc. That lady also peed herself when I scared her for the first time."

"What kind of story are you telling them!? Do you even want to get sold? You know what happens to the women that don't get sold!" The attendant seemed worried about her even though she was angry about what she said. Gren really wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Umm, can I ask a question?" Gren raised his hand. "What happens to the women that don't get sold?"

The attendant hesitated but the black ball answered for her, poking Gren on the cheek to get his attention. "Humans get to work in a mine or get conscripted by the Duke's army. Demihumans don't get that option. Have you ever seen a demihuman soldier? You don't look like you've ever been in a mine but demihumans aren't allowed to work in those either." Gren didn't think about it but he couldn't recall seeing even one demihuman wearing a soldier's armor.

"We become puppets. They use a magic to erase our personalities and individual thoughts. They'll usually send the women to brothels if they're attractive but the men and ugly women get to become decoys for the soldiers when they need to clear out a monster nest or something worse." The black ball expanded and became human-shaped, turning into a replica of the attendant. "If I was a beauty like this then I would be sent to the brothel." The attendant was thankfully helping Tahloh recover and didn't notice what was going on behind her. The shape-shifting woman then changed back into ball form. "Unfortunately, I look like this when I'm not focusing. Not really appealing to anybody but monsters, huh?"

Tiny little nubs suddenly popped out from each side of the ball. "However! A brave hero has decided to save the caged demihuman women to free them from their tragic fate!" The nubs started to grow a little longer and waved up and down. "And that hero's name is...!"

The waving stopped. "Actually, I don't know your name yet." One of the tentacles scratched the top of her head.

Gren answered without thinking. "Uh... Gren. My name is Gren." The tentacles flew out of the cage and wrapped around him.

"I just knew you'd agree! All hail the brave hero that volunteered to save us!" Her shouting got the attention of the women around him. Their soulless eyes slowly recovering in real time as Gren looked at them.

The ball pulled him closer and started whispering. "I know you can afford it. You're quite the interesting man." Gren looked at her in confusion. "I've never seen someone with two sets of memories before. Don't panic. I won't tell anybody. As. Long. As. You. Pay."

Gren sighed. "Blackmail, huh? Fine, I accept. However, I won't free them until they've paid off their debts." Gren was a bit louder with his last sentence so the surrounding women heard him; including the attendant.

"Thank you! I love you!" The black ball yelled out before kissing him on the lips through the bars. She decided to whisper one more thing into his ears. "I think you would have accepted even without the blackmail but I couldn't take any chances."

Gren turned back to the attendant. "How much for all of your demihuman women?" The attendant seemed didn't know what to do so she ran off saying she'd get the boss. That left Gren alone with the demihuman girls. "How do you know these things?" Gren was thinking that she seemed to be able to read minds.

"Yes, but only when in contact with someone." She answered his thought. Gren couldn't tell if she was disappointed about that or not. After all, she was a ball. A tentacle whacked him on the head. "Stop thinking weird things. You'll hurt a lady's self-esteem."

This gave Gren an idea. "Hey, I want to see if you can hear something while you're touching me." A question mark appeared over her head. {How many points do I have?}

<You currently have 9,785 points>

"Waaah!" The ball quickly unwrapped herself from around him and launched to the other side of the cage. One tentacle remained pointing in Gren's direction, shaking. "Wha... What was that?"

"Do you mean the woman's voice?" Gren thought that she was overreacting to the voice of his AI. It might be surprising but she shouldn't be so terrified. Gren reached out to touch her extended tentacle.

"Stay away! Don't touch me!" She was shaking so Gren took his hand back and crouched down in front of the cage.

She didn't seem to be faking it and Gren became worried. "What happened? What did you hear?"

"The voices. They kept shouting at me, telling me to leave. That if I didn't leave then it'd kill me. I saw something. It saw me. Please don't let it see me again. I'll be good. I'll be good." Gren couldn't tell if she was crying.

Just what did she see that caused her to be so scared?